1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a liquid container for holding a liquid to be supplied to a liquid-consuming apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
A liquid-ejecting apparatus provided with an ejecting head that ejects a liquid is a representative conventional liquid-consuming apparatus. An ink-jet recording apparatus provided with an ink-jet recording head for recording images is a typical example of the liquid-ejecting apparatus. Other examples of the liquid-ejecting apparatus are an apparatus provided with a coloring matter ejecting head for fabricating color filters for liquid crystal displays, an apparatus provided with an electrode forming material (conductive paste) ejecting head for forming electrodes for organic EL displays and field emission displays (FEDs), an apparatus provided with a bioorganic material ejecting head for manufacturing biochips, and an apparatus provided with a sample ejecting head as a precision pipette.
The ink-jet recording apparatus, which is a representative liquid-ejecting apparatus, is used prevalently nowadays for printing operations including color printing operations because the ink-jet recording apparatus generates comparatively low noise during a printing operation and is capable of forming small dots in a high dot density.
A liquid supply system for supplying a liquid to the liquid-consuming apparatus represented by the ink-jet recording apparatus supplies the liquid from a liquid container holding the liquid to the liquid-consuming apparatus. Generally, the liquid container used by the liquid supply system is a cartridge capable of detachably attached to the liquid-consuming apparatus to facilitate the user's work for replacing the liquid container with a new one when the liquid contained in the liquid container is exhausted.
Generally, the ink-jet recording apparatus is provided with a carriage carrying a recording head that ejects ink drops and capable of reciprocating along the recording surface of a recording medium. An ink supply system for supplying ink from an ink cartridge to a recording head mounts the ink cartridge on a carriage and supplies the ink from the ink cartridge to a recording head while the ink cartridge is reciprocated together with the recording head. Another ink supply system mounts an ink cartridge on the case or the like of the body of an apparatus, and carries ink from the ink cartridge to a recording head by a flexible tube or the like forming an ink passage.
Recently, the pigment ink is used prevalently for printing high-quality, highly weatherproof images. Although the pigment ink is capable of printing images excellent in print quality, pigment particles of the pigment ink contained in an ink container sediment so that pigment content is distributed unevenly in the ink container. Consequently, the ink-jet recording apparatus is unable to print images in an expected print accuracy after the ink-jet recording apparatus has been kept inoperative for a long time.
An ink-jet recording apparatus proposed in JP-A 60-110458 (Patent document 1) is provided with an ink stirring mechanism including a rotor and a magnetic stirrer. An ink-jet recording apparatus proposed in JP-A 11-10902 (Patent document 2) includes a main tank provided with a stirring member and a stirring bar, a subtank connected to the main tank by an ink circulating line. These mechanisms proposed in Patent documents 1 and 2 are intended to prevent the uneven distribution of pigment content by forcibly stirring the ink held in the ink container.
These mechanisms proposed in Patent documents 1 and 2 need a device including a complicated mechanism, such as the stirrer, and power for driving the complicated mechanism and, consequently, the construction of the recording apparatus is inevitably complicated. The magnetic stirrer and a stirrer driving unit, namely, driving devices for rotating the rotor and the stirring member, need to be disposed near the ink container, which places restrictions on the configuration of the recording apparatus and the recording apparatus is inevitably large.